Lucille Ruth Kunes

Lucille Ruth Kunes, 95, of Buena Vista, Colorado passed away peacefully,
with her daughter by her side, on June 9, 2023. She was born on October
9, 1927 in her home in Gillingham, Wisconsin to Glennis H. and Laura Mae
Cupp.

Lucille graduated from Richland Center High School, Richland Center,
Wisconsin in 1945. After graduation she attended cosmetology school in
Madison, Wisconsin where she met her husband, James J. Kunes, an
electrical engineering student.

She and Jim married on May 25, 1947 in Gillingham, Wisconsin. On the
morning of her wedding, Lucille climbed an apple tree to get a bouquet of
apple blossoms, scraping her leg in the process. The couple lived in
Madison while Jim finished his degree, and they later moved to Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania while he worked on his masters degree. Lucille worked as a
telephone operator during that time.

When Jim began his career with Westinghouse in Sharon, Pennsylvania
the couple moved nearby to Hermitage where Lucille lived in her element
as a homemaker, wife and mother to two daughters. The family car
camped all over the eastern United States, and traveled as far west as
Yellowstone National Park. After Jim’s retirement they traveled to
Germany, New Zealand, and Hawaii, and after his passing Lucille traveled
on her own to Qatar and Korea to visit her daughter and son-in-law who
were teaching abroad.

In 1991, after the passing of their special needs daughter, they moved to
Cambridge, Minnesota to be closer to their only grandchild where Lucille
was his biggest little league fan. In 2000 they moved to Buena Vista,
Colorado for the same reason where Jim was able to spend a year
enjoying the vistas until his passing, and Lucille spent the past 23 years.
Lucille had a passion for covered bridges, sewing, cooking and baking,
counted cross stitch, watching football and baseball, her cat and her
grandson and great grandsons. Her walls were decorated with beautiful
cross stitch images of covered bridges and Amish life. She sewed all of
her daughters’ clothing throughout their early lives, then moved on to
creating beautiful quilts. She told her younger daughter not to take home
economics electives, but to focus on college prep courses because she
could teach her anything she needed to know about cooking and sewing,
and she did. Lucille’s cookbook collection numbers well over 300 books,
and in her later years she loved reading them once again and planning a
dish or dessert to make.

Lucille’s love of life, besides her husband and daughters, was her
grandson, and in the last five years, her two great grandsons. Normally a
somewhat serious person, when the “little boys” came in to light up the
room, Lucille lit up as well, following their every move and enjoying their
antics.

Lucille was preceded in death by her husband, daughter Glennis Mae
Kunes, parents, brother Harold S. Cupp, sisters-in-law Bonita Cupp and
Marcella Cupp, in-laws James and Sylvia Kunes, brothers-in-law Albert
Kunes and Cecil Dickinson.

She is survived by her daughter Barbara Jones (Rick) of Buena Vista,
grandson Nathan (Jennah) Jones with great grandsons Aksel and Anders
of Buena Vista, sister Linda Mae (Melvin) Felton of Wisconsin, sister-in-law
Lillian Dickinson in Minnesota and six nieces and nephews.
Lucille’s family would like to express their gratitude to the Rain Home Care
compassionate private caregivers who made it possible for her to live her
final two months in her own home. They would also like to extend this
gratitude to the hospice care team whose kind hearted support to her and
her daughter allowed Lucille to pass peacefully in her own home.

No service is planned as per Lucille’s wishes. To leave online condolences
for the family please go to www.lewisandglenn.com. In lieu of flowers
please consider a donation in Lucille’s name to the Ark Valley Humane
Society, https://www.ark-valley.org/ or the Arkansas Valley Christian
Mission, https://www.avcmbv.org/

Remembering Lucille
October 9, 1927 - June 9, 2023
Red gaillardia lined the path
To the sunroom
Warm and bright, with a view of the peaks
Expansive
Clocks chime and tick-tock
Did it remind her of the passage of time?
Or did they keep the beat of her heart?
Cross-stitched art
Gifts from her heart
Homemade touches
Made her spirit shine.
Her daughter smiles
In photographs around her home
Along with her grandson and great-grands.
A joy, internalized mostly,
Yet undeniable
It was no secret,
Though she could keep one guessing.
The great grandsons would light up her room
They, lovers of life,
Reminded her of the world outside
That they brought into her,
With their life-giving exuberance
Charming her out of her private world, if momentarily.
She admired their tiny fingers
Around the nesting dolls
The fitting together of the foam puzzles,
Their voices filling the otherwise quiet room.
Fiercely independent,
Content enough to sit in her chair alone
Entertained by a football or baseball game
Or the cars that crawled by,
Or spotting a neighbor on a walk.
Each day, bleeding into the next.
Flowers, clocks, cross-stitch, photographs,
At the heart of it all
Her family
By Kathy Keidel

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